Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age: Theorizing critical digital literacy and civic engagement

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical framework for how critical digital literacy, conceptualized as incorporating Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age, facilitates civic engagement. To do so, after reviewing media literacy research, it draws on utopian studies and political theory to frame utopian thinking as relying dialectically on utopianism and dystopianism. Conceptualizing critical digital literacy as incorporating utopianism/dystopianism prescribes that constructing and deploying an understanding of the Internet’s civic potentials and limitations is crucial to pursuing civic opportunities. The framework proposed, which has implications for media literacy research and practice, allows us to (1) disentangle users’ imaginaries of civic life from their imaginaries of the Internet, (2) resist the collapse of critical digital literacy into civic engagement that is understood as inherently progressive, and (3) problematize polarizing conclusions about users’ interpretations of the Internet as either crucial or detrimental to their online engagement.

Wisdom in the digital age: a conceptual and practical framework for understanding and cultivating cyber-wisdom

“…This means that teachers could use, for example, real stories of virtuous practice based on online opportunities (e.g., online communities working together in the name of solidarity) as well as stories of online abuse, or of other online risks such as plagiarism, in order to teach students about the importance of possessing and showing online different virtues, from empathy and compassion to honesty and respect for others. Relatedly, what this also means is that cyber-wisdom literacy could be taught alongside the teaching of digital literacy, understood not just as practical digital skills and the critical ability to evaluate online content, but also as an understanding of the digital environment, along with the advantages and disadvantages that the internet presents both in general and for civic life (Polizzi, 2020(Polizzi, , 2021.…”

Influencers peruanos, ciudadanía mediática y su rol social en el contexto del Covid-19

“…Como afirman García-Ruiz et al (2014), la ciudadanía demanda a los prosumidores que estos reconozcan su rol al interior del espectro de fuerzas sociales y políticas que coexisten en entornos digitales y, en ocasiones, que construyan dicho rol a partir de las coyunturas que se presentan. No obstante, también abre la necesidad de correlacionar estas prácticas mediáticas de los usuarios con una concepción propia más utópica o distópica de las oportunidades que brinda Internet para la expresión y la deliberación (Polizzi, 2021). Asimismo, resta indagar en la sostenibilidad de estas adaptaciones y giros hacia lo social, sobre todo tomando en cuenta las disfunciones creadas por el capitalismo digital (Fuchs, 2021).…”

Darknet imaginaries in Internet memes: the discursive malleability of the cultural status of digital technologies

“…As noticed by Polizzi (2021), the media research on the internet's socio-technical imaginaries prioritizes questions about the digital environment itself. Much less is known about how internet users draw on this utopian/dystopian thinking to understand the digital age and how they position themselves within it.…”